The Open Window School of Visual Communication seeks to appoint three lecturers.
Lecturer in Three-Dimensional Design. Three-Dimensional Design (3DD) explores the design,...

DEFSA publishes and re-posts articles of interest to Design Educators from various national and international sources. The views expressed therein are to promote insight and discussion in our industry, and may not be necessarily those of DEFSA as an association, or of its members.

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Designed Futures

Design educators interrogating the future of design knowledge, research and education.

ISBN 978-1-990930-81-2

The 8th International DEFSA Conference was hosted by the IIE Vega School and the Cape Peninsula University of Technology from the 9th to the 10th of September 2019 on the Vega campus in Cape Town South Africa. The broad theme of the conference addressed DESIGNED FUTURES: Design educators interrogating the future of design knowledge, research and education. The theme and subcategories of design knowledge, design research and postgraduate design education drew a broad range of responses from the design education community. A workshop on postgraduate education and supervision was held and for the first time, and research posters of postgraduate work were displayed at the conference.

#Decolonise!

The 14th National DEFSA Conference was hosted by Tshwane University of Technology and Inscape Education Group at Freedom Park Pretoria from 27 to 29 September 2017. The theme of the conference #Decolonise! Design educators reflecting on the call for the decolonisation of education, challenged design academics and postgraduate students to scrutinise their educational practice in relation to calls for the decolonisation of higher education.

Ethics & Accountability in Design: do they matter?

The 7th International DEFSA Conference was held in September 2015 and was hosted jointly by Midrand Graduate Institute & Vaal University of Technology

The aim of the DEFSA 2015 conference was to honour and grow an emerging principle-driven, civic minded and human-centred design culture that takes issues of the sustainability, credibility, corporate social responsibility, professional accountability and personal integrity to heart. The typical worldview rhetoric of what should be done is redirected towards individuated responses and actions that foster meaningful change.

Design Cultures: Encultured Design

The 12th National DEFSA Conference took place in September 2013 and was hosted by Vaal University of Technology.

“Design cultures” refers both to the communities of design, but also to the way in which design shapes community – “to design communities”. The designer shapes and is shaped by the communities in which the designer operates. A culture can be defined as any community where members share values, practices, processes and products.

20/20 Design Vision

The 11th National DEFSA Conference (and the 6th International DEFSA conference) was appropriately titled 20/20 Design Vision. A total of 23 papers were presented over a two-day period, addressing a range of topics that were pertinent to the conference theme. Of these papers 22 papers were accepted for publication in the conference proceedings.

Opening gates, between and beyond design disciplines

The 12th National DEFSA conference was hosted by the Design Education Forum of Southern Africa (DEFSA) and co-hosted by the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University (NMMU).

The event was held in collaboration with the 2009 International Mohair Summit. DEFSA encouraged speakers to investigate and debate the manner in which boundaries between design industry, government, community and design disciplines could be addressed within the conference theme.

FLUX: Design Education in a Changing World

DEFSA's 5th International Conference in 2007 was held in Cape Town, South Africa between the 3rd and 5th of October 2007 and was endorsed by Icograda. The Cape Peninsula University of Technology hosted this year's conference.

The purpose of the conference was to bring together theorists, researchers, and practitioners in the fields of design and design education to share ideas and experiences for the benefit of design education in the international context of the knowledge economy. Given the position of South Africa, the host country, in the developing world, a particular sub-theme was Design for/and Development.

Redesigning Design Education

The 8th National DEFSA Conference considered academic papers with regard to restructuring and rethinking the design education landscape, and revisiting the educational responsibility of design education

The Conference took place in September 2006, and was hosted by the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University in Port Elizabeth

Design Education in a creative economy

The 7th National DEFSA Conference took place in September 2005 at the South African Reserve Bank Conference Centre, Pretoria.

The line-up of speakers represented education, business and government sectors. The Reserve Bank served as an apt backdrop against which the theme of the conference, Design Education in a Creative Economy, played itself out.

Design, Research and Development

The 6th National Design Education Forum of Southern Africa (DEFSA) 2004 conference was hosted by the Design Institute of South Africa, a division of the SABS. The 2004 conference was held in Pretoria during June with an exciting and diverse programme that spanned two days.

The 2004 DEFSA Conference broke away from the traditional approach of design educators talking to one another. The focus was on strategic stakeholders talking to educators about their requirements and views on design leadership and clients of design.

Mapping new Territories in Design Education

The 5th National and 4th International DEFSA conference was hosted in 2001 by a group of Gauteng Education Institutions: Technikon Pretoria, Technikon Witwatersrand, University of Pretoria and Vaal Triangle Technikon as part of the first National South African Design Week. The Fourth International Conference investigated the boundaries and interface between disciplines within the conference theme:

"Reshaping South Africa by Design"

The 4th National DEFSA Conference took place in February 2000. For the first time, a large number of individuals from different sectors came together to forge links and develop strategies for promoting design and design education, to the ultimate benefit of South African society.